


I see the light (at last I'm home)

by midnightsnapdragon



Series: Nostalgia [21]
Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, blatant Tangled!scenery, lanterns, you're all invited to the peace ball at new beijing palace; bring your misfits androids and spouses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 19:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightsnapdragon/pseuds/midnightsnapdragon
Summary: They release a lantern together and watch it sail away, joining the torrent of lights rising up between the skyscrapers of New Beijing. A new era of peace means they have nothing to be afraid of for a little while.Except for, maybe, the wrath of a pranked Lunar queen.





	I see the light (at last I'm home)

By the time he found the balcony, he was late, in love, and a little bit drunk. Cress glanced back at him from where she stood at the railing, wrapped in what looked like sheafs of night sky scattered with stars, and pressed her lips together.

“What took you so long?”

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I, uh, got held up.”

She lifted an eyebrow (he was pretty sure he’d seen her and Iko practising in the mirror one time. The latter had thrown a hot pink stiletto shoe through the door that nearly decapitated him).

Thorne held up the delicate paper confection. “I have the lantern?”

The stern look on her face evaporated. _“Yes!_ Oh, finally –” She took it in her hands as he searched his pockets for a lighter. “I used to watch this on the newsfeeds all the time, you know.”

He glanced at her. “What, the lanterns?”

“Mmm. It was so beautiful. I always wanted to be a part of it. It made me miss the Earth so much …” She gazed wistfully at the lantern in her hands. “… even though I’d never been there. Crazy, right?”

“Hey, we’re friends with Cinder _and_ Winter. If you start running tallies on crazy, you know who’s going to come out ahead.”

“Jerk,” she said affectionately. “You’re supposed to say I’m the sanest one.”

Thorne finally located the lighter in his back pocket. Cress bit her lip against a gleeful smile as he bent to light the lantern, and it came alive in their hands with hues of flickering orange, like a heartbeat.  
Holding it between them, they gazed out onto the city below the palace cliffside. All of New Beijing seemed to be holding its breath.

Then: a single, flickering golden light, drifting up and away into the sky.

Somewhere high above their balcony, Emperor Kaito and the Lunar Queen had done the honours together: releasing the first lantern that signalled not just the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Fourth World War, but the fourth year since some nobody cyborg had carried through a revolution on her shoulders, and brought in a new era of peace.

The whole city came alive with lanterns. Thousands and thousands of them rose from the streets and skyscrapers like a swarm of fireflies, or lost bits of the sun trying to return home.

Cress’s eyes were shining as she and Thorne set their lantern free. He wrapped an arm around her as they watched it sail away, joining the torrent of lights rising through the sky.

He looked down at her. She had the same look on her face as when she’d heard a lone nightingale sing through the darkness of Scarlet’s farm: crumpled sadness and full of wonder at the same time. Tears dripped down her cheeks.

He nudged her gently. “You know what I think? A little crazy can be good sometimes.”

“Huh?” She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Why?”

Thorne grinned. “Because I’m crazy in love with you.”

“That’s _terrible,”_ she said, but it had worked: a smile was flickering over her face.

Then Cress turned, cupped his stubbled cheek and looked deeply into his eyes.

“Thorne, tell me the truth.”

He blinked. “Of course. Anything.”

“Are you trying to grow a beard?” she said, and he laughed so hard he nearly fell off the balcony

***

But, as always, Thorne’s sins and misdeeds caught up with them.

There were a couple of balconies on this facet of the palace. When two shadowy figures appeared in the one on their right, Thorne paled.

“Uh,” said Cress, squinting through the darkness. “Who’s th–”

_“THORRRRRRNE!”_ one of them screeched, planting her hands on the railing. “THERE YOU ARE! WE KNOW IT WAS YOU, YOU CHEEKY SWINE!”

Thorne laughed nervously, his arm still around Cress. “Iko, I don’t know what you’re –”

“When I find you, I’m going to string you up from the rafters!” bellowed the other figure, her metal knuckles gleaming in the lantern-light.

“Well, what are you gonna do from over there?” he yelled back. “Throw rocks at me?”

Iko’s voice was sweet. “We had the wrong balcony. Stay right there, would you?”

The shadowy figures disappeared back into the palace.

Cess looked up at Thorne in dismay. _“What did you do?”_

He winced. “I … may have put Cinder’s crown on the statue of Empress Xin?”

Her hand smacked her forehead. “That’s why you were held up? Because you _pranked the sacred statue of the Fire Lady?_ How did you even get it up there, that thing’s like twenty feet – you know what, never mind. You _are_ insane.”

“Hey, I’m a criminal mastermind. We’ll be fine –”

“Cinder’s a _better_ criminal mastermind than you, and you should be very afraid.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He looked nervously at the other balcony. “We should, um, probably run –"

“Yeah,” she said, already grabbing his hand. “No shit.”


End file.
